ICS Daily Devotions
Living Life from the Inside Out
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
This verse is a pivoting point between living under sin and death and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
The old operative order was sin; sin has the power over us and we do not have the ability to overcome it. We were operating in the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death condemns us. It has the sting of death and we have no power to overcome it.
The law of gravity affects everyone; therefore, we are weighed down by it. The law of sin and death affects everybody, and nobody is able to overcome it, therefore, we become a slave of sin.
It is a pivotal point because the apostle Paul was sharing and teaching the difference between the law of sin and death as compared to the life of the Spirit in Christ Jesus. When someone comes to accept Jesus personally, what he is saying is that he is identifying himself with Christ’s death on the cross, his burial and his resurrection. This person acknowledges that he is spiritually bankrupt and has no ability to stand right before God based on his own strength.
Gal 2:20 helps us to identify with our weaknesses and causes us to solely rely on God for his salvation and to experience the abundant life.
When we decide to die to ourselves and choose to live the life of the new creation, it is a pivoting point. We choose not to live a life from the outside in by observing a set of laws (the law of sin and death) but from the inside out by being born again yielding to the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit (The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus)! It is a totally different kind of life!
However, after we have identified with Christ, we declare that we are dead to the old Adam and identify with the last Adam who is Christ.
We have a new identity in Christ! There is a new operating order because we have broken away from the first Adam through our identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ!
Christ is the last Adam who was tempted in all measure and yet without sin. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit! We became partakers of the risen Christ!
1 Corinthians 15:45 (AMP) Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life].
Christ sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and empowered us to live a holy and godly life. He empowers the branches to produce fruits! Fruits of the Holy Spirit coupled with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
F. F. Bruce, the esteemed Greek expositor well said, “Having died with Christ in his death, the believer now lives with Christ in his life––for example, his resurrection life. In fact, this new life in Christ is nothing less than the risen Christ living his life in the believer. The risen Christ is the operative power in the new order, as sin was in the old . . . It is by the Spirit that the risen life of Christ is communicated to his people and maintained within them . . . . The believer’s present life . . . is lived in faith–union with Christ, the Son of God.”
Christ lives in us! The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, lives in us! We live by faith that the greater one lives in us, empowering us and giving us the ability to live the godly life. We can live by faith in this truth and act on it on a daily basis. WE CAN BEGIN TO SOW AND WALK IN THE SPIRIT FROM THE INSIDE OUT! Hallelujah! It’s a breakthrough for us and a breakaway from the bondage of sin! Christ has liberated us!
Sermon Series: Principle of Sowing and Reaping
